A Lebanese feast!

In the past few months I have really been accelerating my love affair with Lebanese food. Besides the fabulous flavours, I love the way the food is served to the table and shared communally, making it the perfect way to gather with friends. This week I visited Byblos restaurant, a local place set in Kibble Park at Gosford.  Below are some pictures of the lovely food we had and some links to a couple of my own version of some of these Lebanese classics.

We started with some falafel – spiced chickpea patties. These were served with garlic tahini and fatoush – garden salad with crisp Lebanese bread throughout and a zesty dressing.

Along with this we had some kebbeh, made from spiced beef, crushed wheat, onion, pine nuts and almonds.  This came with a delicious fresh cabbage salad and some hommous.

Delicious kebbeh

We also tried the dip tasting plate, which was Lebanese bread served with hommous, labne and baba ghanouj, with some really lovely home-made pickles.

Hommous, baba ghanouj and labne

For mains we had shish tawouk – delicious chicken pieces in a beautiful tomato marinade served with Lebanese rice.

Shish tawouk – marinated and sauteed chicken pieces

One of the specials of the day was a whitebait salad, made with lentils and mint.  It’s a combination I had never tried before and it was lovely.

Fresh and interesting whitebait salad

We also had kafta skewers, minced lamb served with more cabbage salad and Lebanese bread and sweet tomato and chilli chutney.

Tasty lamb kafta

My dish of the day was the tender beef skewers, with fatoush and fluffy garlic sauce.  They were absolutely delicious.

My favourite dish of the day – tender beef with garlic sauce.

After such a huge and beautiful feast, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to look at the dessert menu.  We’ll save that for another time!  Thanks to the team at Byblos for another beautiful meal.

Byblos in Kibble Park, Gosford